Books of another World
by greekgeek1
Summary: What happens when demigods and magicians read books about different mythological worlds? What will be their reactions? Takes place after The Lost Hero before Son of Neptune and after the Serpent's Shadow before the Son of Sobek. Jason has his memory back, more or less. I'm so sorry. I DISCONTINUED the story, but it is OPEN FOR ADOPTION.
1. We receive a strange book - Magicians

**Authors Note: Hey guys! This is my first fanfiction. I'm okay with any comments, suggestions, or negative feedback. BTW this chapter is more of like an introduction.**

**Disclaimer:**

**Me: Come on, Rick. Can I please own TKC, PJO, and HOH?**

**Rick: No.**

**Me: But its my birthday! No fair! *fake cries***

**Rick: We both know it's not your birthday.**

**Me: I'll give you a virtual cookie!**

**Rick: greekgeek1 does NOT own TKC, PJO, or HOH.**

Cleo came running to the Brooklyn House training center for magicians with a huge smile plastered on her face. In her hand she was carrying a book called _The Lightning Thief_.

"Guys," she called to the members of the Brooklyn House who were already gathered in the Training room. "I think I have something, ah, very interesting for you to see. I think maybe it's something about the whole Manhattan problem -"

"Manhattan?" Sadie perked up curiously. "What about Manhattan? Why can't we go there?"

"Sadie, if Amos didn't tell us there's probably a reason," grimaced Carter.

"*Gasp*Did Mr. Wikipedia just tell us not to read a book? I'm finding out anyway and reading it even if you're not. Hey everyone! Class dismissed. Gather around for story time!" Sadie shouted.

"Sadie," Zia replied harshly, "if Amos won't tell us it's most likely for the best."

" I'm with Carter and Zia on this one. I have a bad feeling that this book wasn't meant for us to read it, Sadie," Walt replied.

"Well, I woke up and this book suddenly appeared in my room, so I think we should read it," Cleo replied. "Thoth also sent a note saying_ We think it's time you learn of the other side in an attempt to prevent a future war between you and them. Courtesies of Thoth and Apollo._"

"Apollo? Who's Apollo?" Sadie asked.

"Greek god of the sun, prophecies, poetry, music and healing," Cleo replied. "I read about it in a book. Wait a minute. _Greek?_"

"Greek?!" everyone cried out in confusion.

"Do you think . . ." Sadie trailed off.

"Or maybe it's just someone random with the same name," mused Jaz, "though I don't think that's likely."

"I'm all for keeping things the way they are," replied Alyssa quietly.

"Well, now that we know Thoth sent it, I think we should read it," Walt replied.

"Yes," Zia agreed, "it is not like Thoth to send something without a reason."

"See Carter, even your girlfriend agrees with me," Sadie retorted, rolling her eyes.

"You know, eventually your eyes are going to roll out," Carter retorted, only to find Sadie rolling her eyes again.

"Okay. We live in a democracy, right? Right now its Carter and Alyssa against, well, everyone else. I guess we'll be reading _The Lightning Thief _then," said Jaz.

"Can I read first?" Cleo asked, bubbling with excitement.

"Sure, but let's do a roll call first. Julian, Paul, Sean, Shelby and Tucker are visiting their families this week. So we have me, Carter, Zia, Alyssa, Walt, Jaz and Felix- wait a minute. Where's Felix?" asked Sadie.

All of a sudden a ten-foot mutant penguin marched in the room followed by Felix who triumphantly said, "Yes! I finally conjured a giant penguin!"

Everyone glared at him angrily.

"Ummm . . . I blame global warming?" Felix replied uncertainly.

**Hey guys. Please review it makes my day!**


	2. We go to read a strange book - Demigods

Kids were running around in Greek armor carrying swords and running into the woods to kill monsters. A crowd gathered around some kid who almost reached the top of the climbing wall despite spewing lava falling down. New campers were given lessons in winged horseback riding. A couple of kids were hunched over blueprints strategizing for the Capture the Flag game: two campers with swords on border patrol, an illusion potion from Hecate cabin etc. A faint scent of strawberries was in the air. All in all, it was a normal day at Camp Half-Blood, a camp for demigods.

Jason was at sword practice at the arena when Rachel, Annabeth, Leo,Piper, Thalia, Nico and Grover burst in.

"Chiron wanted to meet us at the Big House," rushed Piper. "He said it was very important. He said it could be useful in defeating Gaea."

"Yeah, thanks for telling me. I'll meet you guys there in a few," Jason replied.

* * *

At the big house . . .

"Chiron, what did you say was so important?" Annabeth asked.

"I was sent a book to read with you from the gods," Chiron replied.

"Which gods?" Jason asked.

" Well, I can safely tell you right now that Apollo is involved. Perhaps it will be easier for all of us to process exactly which _other _gods sent this book if we read it first."

"Other gods? As in Roman?" Piper inquired.

"Other gods as in . . . for now let's just read the book," sighed Chiron. He glanced at Rachel as if they were both keeping a secret and Rachel returned the gaze.

"What's the title of the book?" Annabeth asked.

"_The Red Pyramid_," said Chiron. "A book that demigods, according to ancient laws more powerful than the Olympians, weren't supposed to read. Unless in the most dire of situations."

"Yeah, well now we have a psychotic primordial killer earth goddess on the loose who can't even be completely destroyed, so I'd say our situation is perfectly fine," said Leo sarcastically.

"I will read first," said Chiron. "I have a feeling whatever the book is about will help us with our problem."


	3. Reading TLT - Chapter 1

**A/N: Hey guys! Thanks to everyone who followed me or made me a favorite or reviewed. I also want to dedicate this chapter to aishani108 for being the first to review. **

**Disclaimer: Read the URL. Repeat after me: F-A-N F-I-C-T-I-O-N spells ****fan**** fiction. Enough said.**

* * *

After dealing with a ten-foot evil mutant penguin, Jaz, Walt, Sadie, Carter, Felix, Alyssa and Zia sat on couches in the Great Room.

"**I Accidentally Vaporize my Pre-Algebra Teacher," **Cleo read as soon as everyone got comfortable.

"How _do _you accidentally vaporize someone?" asked Alyssa.

"Trust me, accidental vaporizing has happened before," said Carter, throwing glances in Sadie's direction, "and you do not want to know."

"That gives me an idea," said Sadie, smirking.

"No, you can not _ha-di _your teacher so you don't have homework," Carter and Zia said at the same time.

"Well that was weird. Okay, now it's kind of annoying. Stop it!" said Carter/Zia while everyone else gagged.

"Wow, you just might make the OTP list," smirked Sadie.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"Half-blood?" asked Sadie. "As in half white and half black? Because that's just mean."

"No, I think this is bigger," said Walt, "something more . . . dangerous. Maybe it's a code word for magician."

"Dramatic much?" Alyssa asked.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:** **Close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in nasty painful ways.**

"Join the club," Jaz muttered, thinking about Apophis, and everyone nodded in agreement.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think its fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

"One problem," Zia said, "we're not normal kids."

"Got that right," Carter said and kissed her while everybody else gagged.

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

"Once again, dramatic much," Alyssa said.

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"Well, we know _someone _here is," Carter said pointing at Sadie while she rolled her eyes.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"Why can't we go to museums and destroy artifacts and harness magical energy that can put mortals in danger and invade them with penguins?" whined Felix.

"Um, I think you just summed up why we can't," replied Walt.

**I know—it sounds like torture.**

Cleo and Carter both gasped and glared murderously at the book.

"Can we just continue Mr. Wikipedia and Ms. Librarian?" asked Sadie.

**Most Yancy field trips were.**

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons,** **so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"That sounds fun," said Jaz.

"More importantly is how it's even remotely _possible _to fall asleep during a class!" replied Carter while Sadie rolled her eyes.

"You know they're going to fall out someday if you keep on rolling them," said Carter only to find Sadie roll her eyes again.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

**Boy was I wrong.**

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.**

"Wonder what he was aiming for," mused Zia.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and ****our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

"No we don't," said Felix. "What happened?"

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

"I'm guessing that didn't happen," said Alyssa quietly.

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"Really? Peanut butter and ketchup! I'm gonna have to try that," said Felix while everyone else gave him strange looks.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled.** **He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

"Everyone loves Mexican," said Walt while everyone laughed.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"What? How boring is that?" asked Sadie.

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"I'm gonna _ha-di _her," mumbled Sadie.

"I'm gonna send a fireball at her," said Zia under her breath.

"I'll be more than happy to knock her out with a rock," murmured Alyssa.

**Grover tried to calm me down. " It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

"I know right! Peanut butter is the best!" exclaimed Felix earning him several glares.

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

"Percy, just hit her for me already!" grumbled Walt.

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there.**

**In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

"Ooh suspense," said Sadie with her arm around Walt's shoulder.

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"Are you kidding me? This stuff probably survived way longer," said Carter.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a ****_stele, _****for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

Everyone in the room shuddered at the mention of her.

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown. From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

"Okay, now I'm guessing she's a monster," said Zia.

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"Now I know she's a monster," said Zia and everyone shivered.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele –**

"Real mature," said Walt who was interested in the funeral art.

** And I turned around and said, "Will you ****_shut up_****?"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

"Kronos?" asked Sadie.

"He's an evil titan overlord from Greek mythology," replied Carter. "But there's only one thing that puzzles me: why Greek? And how did Percy recognize it?"

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he ****_did _****this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god,** **and—"**

"I thought Ra was the king god," said Alyssa.

"This is Greek, Alyssa," replied Carter.

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead.**

**And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

**"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

"Really? How do you summarize a major immortal war into 'there was a big fight'?" asked Walt.

**Some snickers from the group.**

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

"You never know . . .," said Sadie. "Mythology _does _matter if you're a magician."

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"You never know, mortal," said Walt mysteriously.

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

Sadie snickered and rolled her eyes.

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

"Well that's attractive," said Sadie.

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

"How is that happy? He really needs to learn how to change the subject," declared Zia.

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

"Real mature," said Walt.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your ****studies ****apply to it."**

"Wow, Mr. Brunner sounds like you Carter," said Sadie.

**"Oh."**

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

"Wow that was so dramatic," said Alyssa.

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever **_**lived, **_**and their mother, and what god they worshiped.**

"We should have our trainees do that sometimes with Egyptian mythology," said Carter mystified in educational heaven.

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C—**

Carter made a strangled gasp while Sadie rolled her eyes and sighed, "Drama queen."

** in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be **_**as good; **_**he expected me to be **_**better. **_**And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

"Bummer," muttered Sadie.

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. **

**I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York State had been weird since Christmas.**

**We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

"I think something's up. Something immortal is acting up," said Alyssa.

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

As soon as her name was mentioned, everyone shuddered out of worry for Percy.

"Definitely a monster," whispered Zia. "Percy's probably a magician. Well, at least I think."

Several people nodded in response to Zia.

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from **_**that **_**school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

"Smart move," said Carter.

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

"We figured that out, wise one," said Sadie mockingly.

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

Everyone burst into peals of laughter.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. **

**She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

Thinking of their mother, Sadie let a tear escape her and buried her head in Walt's shoulder while Carter solemnly looked at the floor while Zia comforted him.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

"That little–" said Walt while Zia broke him off.

"Language, Walt! There are innocent children here, well, if Felix can be called innocent."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Felix with gumdrops stuffed in his mouth from his secret stash of candy he had been eating from the entire time.

"Felix, is that a secret stash of candy? And you didn't tell me? Do you have any bubblegum?" asked Sadie.

"Sadie," grimaced Carter. "Felix, you can't eat so much candy."

"Whatever," said Felix, putting his stash of candy under the sofa to take out later.

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

"She is just nasty," said Zia, wrinkling her nose as if she smelt something distasteful.

Several people muttered, "Tell me about it" under their breaths.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

"Yes!" everyone cheered high-fiving each other.

"One small push for weird kid we don't know, one giant shove for weird kid we don't know kind!" shouted Felix dramatically.

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

"Percy's a water elementalist maybe," said Carter shrugging his shoulders.

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"**

"Oh stop it with the _honey _thing already," Alyssa said rolling her eyes.

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"No, that's not what you say! You never guess the punishment." said Sadie. When Carter stared at her, she replied, "What? I actually have a _life _unlike you."

"Trust her to know how to get in and out of trouble," muttered Carter.

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

"No duh Percy!"

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. ****_I _****pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

"Awwwww that's so sweet of him!" all the females cooed.

"Stop acting like Hathor," said Walt frowning.

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—****_will_**—**stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

"That was pretty brave," said Carter admiringly.

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "****_Now_****."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

"Please, it can not be better than mine," said Felix haughtily. He turned away then turned back and glared at everyone in the room, even though he was scrunching up his face so he looked, well, constipated.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

"I don't think that's it, buddy," replied Carter.

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

"Must've been a good book," said Carter.

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

"I really hope that's it, though, well, 99.99999999999999999999999999999999999999% chance not," said Walt shaking his head.

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, except for us, the gallery was empty.**

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

"What! All alone with no witnesses! How is he going to defeat a monster with no training or wand?" asked Sadie.

"_You _were destroying monsters when you were untrained and twelve," Walt told his girlfriend while hugging her.

"Well, yes, but I was the host of Isis."

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

"Probably did."

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**"With what?" Carter asked nervously. He had started liking this Percy Jackson.**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

"You never know."

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

"I hate it when monsters don't tell us stuff," said Felix trying to lighten the mood. "They're all like, 'we're so cool and all immortal and all-knowing and you mortal pea-brains don't know a thing' and then they're all like 'we know your secret' and then you're all like 'what are you talking about' and then they're all like 'did you really think you could get away' and then you're like 'seriously what are you talking about'."

"Um . . . what?" asked Alyssa.

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

"Okay, now that's the kind of person I like," said Sadie. Walt pouted silently. Sadie noticed and said, "Not like that, Walt," before kissing him on the cheek.

Or maybe the**y'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

Carter managed a strangled gasp and everyone stared at him. "What? It's a good book!'

"Ugh . . . drama queen, the poor kid has dyslexia so spare the world from your boring lectures," moaned Sadie.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"Carter, I don't think I ever heard of monsters or demons like that," said Alyssa worriedly.

"Neither have I," said Carter and looked to Zia to see if she knew, but Zia shook her head.

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

"Yay! Now he can write on her! Because writing is so totally helpful," said Sadie sarcastically rolling her eyes.

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

"One word. Whoa."

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

"This is bad, this is bad," agonized Carter.

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!**

"He—he sent a demon to the Duat on the first swing! Do you think he may be hosting a god?" asked Zia amazed.

"No, the gods except Anubis were banished after defeating Apophis, remember? He might just be a really powerful water magician," replied Carter.

"**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

The magicians shivered.

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

"Magic mushrooms?" inquired Sadie shrugging her shoulders.

"That is by far the most, ah, interesting response I've heard so far," said Carter amused.

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Mortals and their perception," mumbled Alyssa.

**I said, "Who?"**

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

"Freaky," said Felix mysteriously in a quiet voice. Even the room was perfectly quiet. Perhaps too quiet . . .

"Anyway, who wants to take a lunch break?" shouted Felix.

"Felix, it's 10:45 in the morning," replied Alyssa.

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

Sadie face palmed and said, "Rule number 1: Never hesitate. Ever."

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

"Okay, now he can lie," said Sadie.

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"It must be weird to know something and have everyone else act like it never happened," mused Zia.

"Okay, so we think Percy's most likely a magician," Alyssa summarized. "Perhaps a the path of Sobek."

"But—still, something seems off about Percy. It feels as if he's _different_. How so, I don't know. I just know there must be something special about him. The gods don't just randomly send a book ever time a trainee shows up," said Cleo. "Oh, by the way, this book took place about five years ago. I forgot to tell you."

"If he managed to survive for five years after knowing his identity without reaching Brooklyn House, he's got to be really powerful," said Carter.


End file.
